An axial ball joint, which is used to connect a toothed rack to a tie rod of a motor vehicle, has been known from GB 2 004 321 A. This joint has a tubular housing, which is provided on one side with an internal thread. On the other side, located opposite the internal thread, a bearing surface, in which the joint ball made integrally in one piece with a ball pivot can be mounted, is made in the housing. The ball pivot passes through the housing with its pivot. A bearing shell, which is pretensioned against the joint ball by a disk screwed into the internal thread, is provided as a counterpiece for this housing mount on the side on which the toothed rack is connected. The tubular housing must be screwed onto the external thread of the toothed rack. An additional locking is necessary for securing against the spontaneous loosening of this connection. This is done by staking according to GB 2 004 321 A.
The solution presented in that document has the drawback that both the joint ball and the housing must be hardened if the joint ball of the ball pivot is mounted directly in the tubular housing.
However, such a solution also implies the possibility that the disk may move within the range of the thread tolerances in the radial direction.
The operation of fixing of the disk, which is additionally necessary, may cause, on the one hand, an unintended change in the pretension once set; on the other hand, a spontaneous loosening of such a connection can never be ruled out. This means increased safety risk.